STATUS QUO: CHALLENGED

On Tuesday Republican Assembly candidate Kieran Michael Lalor (105th District) declared his independence from the Dutchess County Republican party bosses and announced that he will forgo the May 10 nominating convention and focus on the Republican primary this summer and the general election in November.

Said Lalor, “”The overwhelming majority of rank and file GOP Committee members are good hardworking Republicans. But the county GOP leadership, namely Vice Chairman Ken Stenger and Chairman Mike McCormack are not committed to Republican principles or improving the lives of New Yorkers or Dutchess County residents.””

Continued Lalor, ““The party bosses pick weak candidates for the wrong reasons and their track record proves it. Since the current regime came into power, the GOP has picked a string of losing candidates and Republican turnout has been down. This reveals a wide disconnect between the party elites and actual Republican voters.””

Beginning with the 2009 special election to replace Kirstin Gillibrand in the 20th Congressional District, the GOP candidate lost the Dutchess County portion of the district and thus the election in a recount. In the 2010 gubernatorial primary the Dutchess County GOP supported Rick Lazio, who lost the primary after getting crushed in Dutchess County by Carl Paladino by a margin of 60%-40%. In the 2010 US Senate primary, the Dutchess County GOP went with Bruce Blakeman who finished a distant third statewide and in Dutchess.

The party bosses handpicked choice in the 2012 special election for the 103rd Assembly District last month went down to a stunning defeat in what was thought to be the safest Republican seat in the state. In that race, more Democrats turned out than Republicans in Dutchess County.

“Under the current leadership, the May 10 convention will undoubtedly be fraught with cronyism, nepotism and horse trading. While the rank and file committee people will have the best interest of the state and county in mind at that convention, the party bosses who control the convention through the unsecure proxy process will determine the candidate without regard for the greater good or even electability,” said Lalor.

Lalor, who was a complete unknown when he won the GOP convention in 2008 to be the Republican nominee for the US Congress, said of the May 10th GOP convention, “”We won the convention in 2008. However, the lesson learned was that we would have been better served spending our time and resources on getting our message out to voters.”

““Instead of participating in a kangaroo court controlled by party bosses and jumping through their hoops for the next month, I’ll be taking my message of reform, job creation and tax relief to thousands of voters through our phone banking operation and tireless door to door canvassing,”” explained Lalor.

A host of GOP committee members remain committed to working on the Lalor campaign because they are fed up with the GOP elites. In addition, a number of local TEA Party organizations have joined forces with Lalor’s growing grassroots campaign of small business owners, independents, conservatives and reformers.